Job Discussion Forums

[Scawie]

Hi,

I have a car in the UK and I want to bring it here and I'm wondering if anyone else has done the same.

Seems that it's not possible to register an RHD car without some special permission, which is almost never given, so I guess I'll have to insure it UK registered (and UK taxed and tested) and (at least in theory) take it back to the UK once every 6 months.

Just wondering what others have done about this, and which companies you've used (for a 12 month green card).

Is it a real pain driving an RHD car on the wrong side of the road?

I know the sensible thing would be to buy something over here, but I like my car too much

One more thing, the car is not entirely standard, I replaced the engine with a more powerful one (although the same capacity in cc). It's a Peugeot 205 GTi with the 1905cc 8 valve engine removed, and replaced with the 1905cc 16 valve engine from a citroen BX 16v.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[simon_porter00]

Having studied in Krakow a year or two ago, I took my battleship with me. I found it impossible to get insurance for more then 3 months, even harder to get find a company that would do it for one 3 month block, as most will only allow the car overseas for 3 weeks at a time max.

I wouldn't know about the polish admin route, but needless to say it would be a right pain in the ar5e.

Given that you've modded the car, I would expect insurance would cost rather a lot, and if you've had it lowered you probably wouldn't want to take it anyhow as it would probably get beached on some of the bumps on Polish roads/or shaken or smashed to bits. Nice looking cars also tend to attract the wrong 'kind of attention' shall we say, so make sure you've got a garage you can keep it in.

[Grrrmachine]

I'd strongly recommend against this - I wanted to bring a car in from the UK that had been modified, and I got so bounced around by the different departments that the beaurocratical nightmare would stop you driving it for at least three months, if not more.

[Pollux]

Forget about registring your car in Poland. However, there is nothing stopping you from driving on Polish roads with UK plates. There are lots of cars on the road with foreign plates. Should you be pulled over, you show your papers for the UK and the police will let you go unless you are drunk. All you have to say is that you're visiting Poland.
Now, to keep your car you will need to find a guarded parking lot. Although I doubt anyone would want to steel your car, this will give you peace of mind. I've been driving on foreign plates for over a year and I haven't had any problems from the police.

[mique]

Lots of Poles bring back cars from UK too - often see RHD cars on Polish plates so it cant be too big a problem getting insurance etc... Theres always a way.

[simon_porter00]

I would suspect the the RHD cars owned by Poles either are insured by Polish companies (not sure if this is possible/difficult etc) or not at all. Having asked mine and my girlfriends Polish families about this it seems that insurance is not seen as vital, primarily because it concerns hadning over money.

Most accidents seem to be settled with cash

[elblagskich]

since joining the EU the only companies inPL who'll insure a UK car is PZU the last time i paid 280 zl per month for a peugeot 405 1989 deisel in 2004. When I first came to PL in 1999 it cost 108zl per month.

I now have an opel omega (polish plates) 2.6 and costs 550zl per year.

You could go for one of those UK insurance companies who don't ask you to specify when you go abroad and then if it's 3 months worth of insurance and you have a problem just say you arrived a few weeks before.

Good luck